History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
Comments
bennythedog said...
I’m not a baseball historian so, I was wondering if anyone knew why Mantle didn’t play in this game. He had a nice year in ‘55 and the other guys in the outfield didn’t seem to be better than him. Was he hurt?
Just curious…
Posted 07/07 at 05:42 PM
Chris J. said...
Benny,
Interesting - I never noticed that about Mantle.
I can’t say exactly what happened, but it looks like he hurt himself on September 16. He got a single in the second inning, and was immediately lifted for a pinch runner. Over the rest of the season, he managed only two appearances as a pinch hitter - that was it. Mind you, he’d appeared in every previous game on the year (and started all but one before 9/16).
Probably screwed up his leg or knee running to first on September 16.
Posted 07/07 at 06:52 PM
Magnum said...
Mantle had a torn leg muscle in the ‘55 series, he missed games one, two, five, and six in their entirety.
Just found your blog. I like it.
Posted 07/07 at 10:00 PM
Preston said...
Interestingly enough, it’s also the only World Series game of his career that Jackie Robinson didn’t play in.
I’m not a baseball historian so, I was wondering if anyone knew why Mantle didn’t play in this game. He had a nice year in ‘55 and the other guys in the outfield didn’t seem to be better than him. Was he hurt?
Just curious…